If you’ve been following my blog for at least a year, you may remember the first post on the Christmas Formal.

Last night was this years event. It was a ton of fun, but seemed to go by really quickly this year! Here are some photos to share

We finally got our professional wedding pictures! There were 460 pictures total, so I picked a few of my favorites to share! Hope you enjoy!

 

Seeing each other for the fist time

At the park

My bouquet

Me and the flower girls

Chad and the ring bearer

The bridal party

Bride and Groom with their parents

Power of love (cheesy right?!?)

My brother in law and niece. Their faces are priceless.

Dad giving me away

The prayer of blessing

You may now kiss the bride (I had to tippy toe)

Our entrance to the reception — anyone seen the movie “Hitch”?

The bridal party joined in on the dancing fun.

And yes… he slid on the floor in his white tux

Our rings on the favors

The ‘last time he had the upper hand’ ;)

The toast

After the cake war.

Our first dance

Dancing the night away

Psalms 7:17

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

Every other year for Thanksgiving Chad and I go to Cleveland to visit his sister. On the alternating years, we stay home and have Thanksgiving with my family. This year, we were in Cleveland. It was his sister and her family, Chad’s parents, us, and then his sister’s in-laws were there as well. I love Thanksgiving every year and the time we get to spend with family! This year, I noticed how much Chad’s nephew loves spending time with him! We would be sitting on the couch, and his nephew would just come over and crawl up in Chad’s lap. It was too cute! It just reminds me of how blessed we are! Family is one of the MANY things I am thankful for!

I am thankful for my savior! I am thankful that while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Rom 5:6) – that’s me! I am thankful that He never gave up on me while I was living in rebellion against Him. I am thankful for His grace, forgiveness and mercy and am humbled at the blessings He’s given me! I am thankful that His word is true and that He is never changing! I am thankful for His love and comfort. I am thankful for His direction, guidance, and discipline when I am not obedient!

I am thankful for my husband! I am thankful that he is a man after God’s heart! I am thankful that he is loving and forgiving! I am thankful that he has a desire for our relationship and our marriage to be honoring to God. I am thankful that he has a good sense of humor; that he likes to keep the house tidy; and that he has a lot of the same interests I do!

I am thankful for both of our families. Both of our parents are God fearing and raised us to be the same way! They gave us direction in our lives that is so important! We can’t begin to thank them enough!

I won’t write small paragraphs for each thing I’m thankful for or you’d be reading for days and days! So… the rest of the list will be short =o)

I am thankful for my friends

I am thankful for my job

I am thankful for our home

I am thankful for my health

I am thankful for the changing of the seasons

I am thankful for God’s beautiful creation – the trees, oceans, mountains, etc

I am thankful for my car

I am thankful for living in a country where I am free to serve God

I am thankful for the soldiers that fight to give me that freedom

I am thankful for worship music

I am thankful for time spent alone with God

I am thankful for everything God has blessed me with.

I pray that your Thanksgiving was blessed and that you will continue to praise God for the many things He has provided for you!

For His Glory ~ CLE

Chloe was kind enough to give me the Sugar Doll Award! Thanks Chloe! The duties that come with this award entail writing a few things about me and then awarding other bloggers.  

I love Jesus more than anything! He has brought me out of a very frightening place, and I owe Him nothing less than everything I am and everything I have!

God has given me a desire to work with and encourage women in their walks with Him. I don’t understand fully what this means yet, but God has given me a lot of confirmation that this is His will. For now, I’m continuing to pray about it!

I am blessed with the most amazing husband! No matter what, he never fails to make me smile! He spoils me beyond belief, and I think he’s pretty stinkin’ handsome too

I enjoy running and exercising! I usually hit the gym about 4 times a week. I’m going to run in a 10K in May and then possibly a half marathon in September. So, I will be hitting the pavement a lot more than being in the gym for quite a while!

Caramel Frappuccino’s are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and I’m trying to get therapy for my addiction

My job is no longer my #1 priority in life (although I used to struggle with that). I do however, LOVE my job! I have a boss who sees my strengths and gives me responsibilities that allow these strengths to increase! She is also not afraid to tell me when I’m not doing things to my full ability, which in turn makes me grow! I’m really blessed with my job!

I have a few OCD tendencies… everything needs to be clean and in its place. I have to check, double check, and triple check certain things before I’m okay with them (including, but definitely not limited to making sure my curling iron or straighter are unplugged before I can walk out the door). My clothes have to be in a certain order in my closet. The great thing is that Chad is the same way as far as keeping things neat and in order in the house – isn’t it great how God works?

I like snowboarding! I went for the fist time 3 years ago. 2 years ago toward the end of the season, I hurt my knee and couldn’t hit the slopes again that year. This also resulted in physical therapy (boo!). Chad and I want to plan a trip to Colorado or someplace. I’ve been limited to the small ski place over by our house, where he’s been to Whistler Blackcomb. I need a better experience with the slopes!

I am shy. This is one of the things about me that I don’t particularly like and I need to overcome this (see point 2). Once I know someone for a while, I am much more talkative and relaxed. When I first meet someone though, I won’t say much at all!

I love music! Worship and acoustic are my absolute favorites, but everything else comes in at a close second!

There’s a list of a few random details about me! Now for the best part! Awarding other people!!! I hope there isn’t a limit on how many I can award… I have quite a few! Some I know, some I found and really enjoy their posts!

Ashley Morford’s Blog. She’s new to the blogging world!

Kaleigh’s Story.

Ramblings

Acorns to Oaks

Life is Beautiful

Living for Jesus

Mrs. Lambert

Song of Praise

Stories from Will and Kendra

And I can’t leave out my favorite place to find desserts! Although she may not re-post since hers is a food blog and not a personal blog

Picky Palate

So, that’s been my phrase for about the past week. As much as I don’t want to take it in to next week, I have a feeling I’m going to need to. The new unit at work has been staffed and we’re in the process of getting everyone trained. I feel like I have not had time to get any of my regular duties done. My days have also been less than structured. For anyone that has mild OCD tendencies, you will know that unstructured makes things seem excessively chaotic! Yikes! I’m ready to get my structured days back, but for now, I’m just going with the flow. Change is good, right? Everything will all work out in the end!

 

Although I don’t feel like I’ve done anything outside of work, I have made a few small progressions! I’ve decided that in May, I’m doing thee 10K at the Flying Pig Marathon, and if all goes well with that, I’ll do a half marathon in September! My sister-in-law does a half marathon up in Akron Ohio in September and has asked me to join her! She’s coming down to visit (she lives about 5 hours north of us) in May and is going to do the Flying Pig with me! Should be fun, and it’s given me a goal, a purpose, and something to run for! SO! In light of that, I’ve been more motivated to get my tush in gear and run! It’s great!

 

Not too much time to write, but I figured since I haven’t blogged in a bit, I’d hop on for a short update. Oh yes – some food for thought… This has been on my mind for a few weeks. Why did Jesus have Judas as one of his 12? I mean, any person could have been used and could have betrayed Jesus… Why was it someone that was so close to Him?

 

Have a great weekend if I don’t write again before then!

So… I’m going to do it… I’m really going to do it… Thank you Chloe for the idea! I’m going to find a cause, raise money, and run! I enjoy running! I really, really enjoy running! So… step one is done. I decided I’m going to do it! Step two, find a good cause to run for that’s close to where I live; step three,  sign up; step four, train and raise money! I’m SOOO excited.

The problem is coming in at step two. How do I find a good cause to run for and where do I find out if they are going to have it close to me? I would LOVE to run to raise money for abused women, or to stop abortions, or even for breast cancer. Those would

I’m sure everyone’s heard the phrase “if I had a quarter every time <insert action>, I’d be rich”… Well, there’s a lady that sits on the same floor as my department that’s had a terrible cough for a few weeks now (I need a surgical mask). Friday we decided to make it interesting. It started off I told my co-worker that I get a quarter every time the lady coughs. Then we decided to make a game out of it. We’d take shifts. Each one of us would count her coughs for one hour. Whoever’s hour had the most coughs was the winner. The loser has to pay the winner a quarter for every minute of the margin. The first hour was not my shift. She coughed 37 times… Then, it was my hour… By minute 10, she had already coughed 21 times… I was certain I was going to win!  Well… Then we realized that any time someone went over and talked to her, she wouldn’t cough… So, my competition went over and held a 10 minute conversation with her… THEN she went outside to smoke and was gone for 15 minutes… SERIOUSLY? My goodness! So she eventually came back and by the end of my hour I was only able to count 38 coughs. Ugh. Had she been here (and uninterrupted) the whole time, I’d be rich! Instead I just get a quarter!

 

Ha! The things we do to keep our sanity

So, it’s back to my random blogs – YAY! Today I got to do something I’ve never done before. I helped conduct interviews! I’ve never been on the opposite side of the table before! It was quite an experience! There were two managers conducting the interviews with me, then obviously the interviewee. I got to ask a lot of questions and give my input on how I felt each of the candidates would do in the position we’re hiring for. It was… interesting… to say the least. I must say though, it’s SOOO exciting to see nothing turn in to something. LONG story short, a whole new department needed to be created in our company, and I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of helping it all come together! Once the offer is made for the candidate we selected, we’ll have the department fully staffed and ready to kick it off! Obviously they’ll all go through training first, but we have to be fully functional by December 1^st… I’m pumped to see how everything works out!

Having interviews and all today, I dressed business attire. Typically it’s business casual since we aren’t dealing face to face with people. One of my co-workers said he thought I would scare the candidates away with my outfit… He said my shirt looked like it is something someone would’ve wore to a millennium party (new years ’99-’00). He’s goofy. Does anyone else agree?

Here's a close up of the sequence

 

Okay… this morning… no JC/CE time and no work out either. Ugh. I’m such a slacker. Does anyone have some good motivation tips to help me get in the groove? 21 days right? You keep a consistent schedule for 21 days and then it becomes habit? Lol, I need to get over the two day hump first! I feel like a weekly dieter… you know, someone who starts their ‘diet’ on Monday and then by Tuesday or Wednesday, they’re done with it and say they’ll start next Monday… then you repeat the vicious cycle! I feel SO much better when I’m in a good JC/CE and gym routine. Why’s it so stinkin’ hard? L

Sorry about that… hope that wasn’t depressing… just a little venting. Off to the gym now, and then picking up stuff for my sister’s baby shower this weekend, then home to my hubby – YAY!

Okay, so I’m actually posting this a day late. Yesterday was super hectic! I was 2/2 on getting up early, having breakfast and spending time with the Lord… Still 0/2 on actually working out in the morning! But my JC/CE time is way more important than working out, so that’s okay. I got to work at 7:30AM and was going to workout at lunch or after work instead, so I brought my gym bag. Well… our Tuesday meeting turned in to a 2.5 hour meeting… and with a million other things I had to do, I didn’t take a lunch… and wound up working until 7PM. I was anxious to get home to Chad since we didn’t see each other on Monday, so no gym for me.

I got home and Chad had made dinner, Chicken Yum Yum! Lol, and the name is SO appropriate! He’s such a great husband! After dinner clean up, we spent some time together. It was so nice! I love getting to just hang out with him =o) Eventually, we had our nightly devotional and then off to bed.

The second half of my day was nice and relaxing! The first half was busy, busy, busy and, yes, you guessed it… BUSY! I usually have one of those days every once in a while, so I guess that’s appropriate that it came on the last day of my ‘daily life’ blogging! I hope everyone enjoyed a typical day/week in my life! Hope you’ll visit again =o)

Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Wow, wow, wow! How true is that! As I’ve been writing about my days, and thinking about the things I want to do – this verse kept coming to mind! For a while before I came across YLFC’s idea to blog about our days, God had been tugging on my heart about how I spend my time. So when the idea came to write about our typical days, it just fell in line with what God has been speaking to me.

My ideal day would be –

Wake up

Breakfast

Time with me and God

Work out

Work

Home and make dinner

Relaxing / Time with Chad/friends/family

Get ready for the next day

Devotion time with Chad

 

My typical day is –

Wake up

Rush to get ready and to work

Work later than I prefer

Try to get to the gym at lunch but sometimes I skip

Home and make dinner

Odd and End things around the house

Sometimes prep for the next day

Devotion time with Chad

“What I want to do I do not do”… Spending one on one time with God is what I want and what I need. I put things before Him and that is a sin! Today was a new day though! Today I got up, had breakfast, spent time with the Lord, then got ready for work. I didn’t work out, but I brought stuff with me, and I will work out after I get off work. It’s a start; and every day, I need to remind myself that God is my #1 priority and instead of just saying that, I need to let my actions prove it! I need to show Him that He is my #1!

Tonight is our girls Bible study! I’m excited! We’ve been talking about the attributes of God! It’s been great and I’m stoked to see what tonight will bring!

How about you? What are your priorities in life? Do your actions / the things you spend time on reflect the same thing? If not, what’s keeping you from spending your time on the things most important to you?